Russians pay their respects to former President Yeltsin

Yeltsin, who died of heart failure on Monday aged 76, will lie in state at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour - a church that was blown up by the Communists then rebuilt under Yeltsin - in preparation for his funeral on Wednesday.

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For the past 80 years most Kremlin leaders have been buried on Red Square. Underlining Yeltsin's break from the Soviet past, he will be buried at the Novodevichye cemetery, within the walls of a monastery on the banks of the Moskva river.

Newspapers were filled with tributes to Russia's first democratically elected leader and they also noted Yeltsin's shortcomings during his eight years as president - economic turmoil, a disastrous war against rebels in Chechnya and his drink-fuelled gaffes.

"He wanted to do positive things for Russia but it did not always turn out that way," said Danil Klimov, a 27-year-old builder walking past the cathedral. "It was a very difficult job."

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A sign at the cathedral's entrance said it was closed "due to technical reasons". Workmen were sweeping the concourse and cleaning up the grass verges as welders attached what looked like a television gantry to the roof.

President Vladimir Putin, handpicked by the ailing and out of touch Yeltsin to succeed him before he stepped down in 1999, issued a decree declaring Wednesday a day of national mourning.

Mourners line up to view the former president's body, lying in state

In an address to the nation late on Monday, Putin said that thanks to Yeltsin, "a whole new epoch was born. New democratic Russia was born, a free state open to the world".

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich of Ukraine and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan - two ex-Soviet states which Yeltsin helped to independence - were among the first to confirm their attendance at the funeral.

Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and composer Dmitry Shostakovich are also buried at the Novodevichye cemetery.

Many newspaper tributes viewed Yeltsin through the prism of seven years under Putin who, critics say, has rolled back many of the democratic reforms his patron introduced.

"Boris Yeltsin said that he was leaving Russia to 'a new generation of politicians', under whom the country 'will never go back to the past'. But over seven years of his presidency Vladimir Putin has proved that a return to the past is possible," said the Kommersant newspaper.

There was also acknowledgement of Yeltsin's failings in office, including a privatisation drive that handed state assets to loyal business moguls at rock-bottom prices.

"The malevolence of fate: everything he initiated turned out the opposite way round. He wanted to make many rich but only enriched a few," said the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

Alluding to Yeltsin's penchant for alcohol, the paper said: "He had one personal weakness, which is understandable and forgivable for Russia. And it wasn't this weakness that ruined his authority but the war (in Chechnya) and privatisation."